The information age has generated far more data than humanity can ever hope to manually process, but with the help of artificial intelligence, that avalanche of data is now revealing itself to be far more useful than we ever thought possible. The omnipresent wireless signals that keep us connected can now be used like…

Replicating the complicated muscle structure that allows fish to wiggle their bodies and dart through the water is no easy feat. But not every underwater creature moves that way. Cuttlefish instead use long fins that undulate in waves to propel themselves, which is an approach that robotics maker Festo found…

The technical skills of programmer John Carmack helped create the 3D world of Doom, the first-person shooter that took over the world 25 years ago. But it was level designers like John Romero and American McGee that made the game fun to play. Level designers that, today, might find their jobs threatened by the …

An eye blink is over in less than a second, which means you can’t possibly be missing much while your eyes are closed, right? But it’s estimated that humans can blink over 28,000 times a day, and as much as 10 percent of our time awake is spent with our eyes closed. So it turns out you’re actually missing a lot by…

The walls of your house keep the roof up, give your family some privacy, and maybe provide a place to hang some art. But researchers at Disney and Carnegie Mellon University have come up with a way for walls to do more. A cheap paint treatment turns them into giant sensors, creating new ways to interact with a smart…

Virtual reality headsets today use your eyes and ears to make simulated experiences seem more real, but what about your other senses? Researchers at Stanford University have come up with a way for your hands and fingers to feel virtual objects with a unique robot that looks like an animated version of those Pin Art…

Some smartwatches come with powerful processors, lots of storage, and robust software, but have limited capabilities compared to smartphones thanks to their tiny touchscreens. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and ASU Tech, however, have now created a smartwatch prototype with a built-in projector that turns…

One of the many inconveniences that doomed wearable products like Google Glass and Snap’s Spectacles was the need to charge them every night. Streaming video and data requires a lot of power, and that takes a tremendous toll on a tiny battery. But engineers at the University of Washington say they’ve found a way to …

The most common types of 3D printing involve either extruding melted plastic or using a laser to solidify tiny particles, layer by layer, to slowly build up a solid object. But researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found a way to radically change that process by 3D…

The Flintstones, a cartoon about life in the Stone Age, has just surpassed The Jetsons, a cartoon about life in the distant future, when it comes to technological innovation. Researchers have successfully trained artificial intelligence to generate new clips of the prehistoric animated series based on nothing but…

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and that’s how most alarm systems are able to detect and warn of trouble. But Chinese researchers have developed a new kind of wallpaper, using ingredients found in bones and teeth, that sounds the alarm when heat and flames are detected, turning every wall in a room into a potential…

It’s understandable that you want to be as careful as possible when handling explosive material like rocket fuel—but manufacturing the volatile mixture requires even more care. So JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, helped create a safer way to mix explosive ingredients by building a working robotic version…

If the only thing more terrifying to you than a spider is a spider chasing you, you’re not going to want to watch this video of Festo’s latest creation. Using eight reconfigurable legs, the BionicWheelBot can creepily crawl along the ground, but then transform into a wheel and roll at an alarming speed. Someone find…

Bad weather can make driving extremely dangerous, no matter who’s behind the wheel. But when it comes to dense fog, which makes it all but impossible for human drivers to see more than a few feet ahead of a vehicle, MIT researchers say they have developed a new imaging system that could eventually let autonomous cars…

Robotics engineers at Guangdong University of Technology’s School of Automation in China are bringing us one step—albeit a much larger step—closer to realizing Tony Stark’s fictitious Iron Man suit. Their new robot features jet-powered feet that greatly improve the bot’s balance, agility, and capabilities.

If you consider yourself a master of the yarn but have grown tired of knitting socks, sweaters, and scarves, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Textiles Lab are about to breath new life into your craft with software that can turn almost any 3D model into a knitting pattern.